Gwen Stefani crafted unforgettable moments while touring with her young sons, despite the challenges.
The 54-year-old rock star mom opened up on The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Show’s recent podcast episode, sharing insights into balancing motherhood with her music career. Gwen Stefani, a seasoned touring musician, skillfully managed the juggle, taking her eldest son, Kingston, on the road when he was just 9 weeks old.
“I got pregnant, had the baby and when he was 9 weeks old, Jimmy Iovine, who’s the guy at my label, he’s like, ‘You gotta go in the studio. There’s this African rapper you need to work with.'”
Whether crafting a solo album or touring with No Doubt, Kingston was Gwen Stefani’s constant companion.
“It just felt so real and right. I got so ripped off on that tour because I was so sick. I ended up taking the baby when he was 9 months and going and doing a world tour, like 120 shows … We’re in a hotel one day and I thought that I had to stop nursing because I was like, ‘How am I going to nurse and be on stage?'”
Despite initial hesitation, Gwen Stefani continued nursing, driven by the profound joy of motherhood. “I waited my whole life to be a mom. That’s all I wanted, my entire life, and so I didn’t end up stopping nursing.”
“[Kingston] had this fixation with twirling, so I would do my whole hair and my glam and I’d have to nurse him right before I went on stage, and he’d be like trying to pull out my hair,” she recalled. “He was on the tour bus in a little cradle and it was incredible. He went everywhere around the world with me. We went to every zoo that you could go to. I never used to see anything before because I was so tired but this time, I’d be like, ‘Okay, I got to take the baby to go.'”
As the tour concluded, Stefani, exhausted yet brimming with memories and gratitude, embarked on a new chapter—pregnancy with her son Zuma, just a month later.
“With Zuma, when he turned 9 months, that’s when I went back in with No Doubt and we did another 60 shows together,” she said. “We went back on tour with the babies and, that took it to another level. That was like, ‘I think I’m going to be dead after this tour.'”
Reflecting on those years, Stefani recalls having “no downtime,” yet expressing a strong desire to pursue it desperately.
“I just didn’t have anything left in me. And I was going back in to work with them. And I got pregnant with Zuma. And I think everybody was disappointed, you know? But it was fine, I had Zuma and we just kept going in the studio and we ended up writing this record called ‘Push and Shove.'”
Stefani reminisced about wrestling with feelings of “guilt and selfishness” when leaving her kids to work, later facing frustration as “no song would come.”
“I’m not with my kid, and I’m like spending time wasting it because I’m not good enough to write a frickin song,” she shared.
Stefani believed her family was complete until a surprising twist: Kingston’s request for another sibling rekindled the possibility of expanding their family.
“I was like, ‘I’m too old. I’m not having any more babies. I’m sorry, love,’ ” she said. “He just wanted a baby, so he would start praying every night for this baby. Four weeks later, praying every night like, ‘Please, let my mom have a baby,’ and I’m pregnant with Apollo.”
“I’m like 43 years old, and it’s this true miracle, and every time I would go the doctor, I was like, ‘He’s gonna say this is not gonna work out,’ and every time he’d be like, ‘Looking great.'”
Continuing her narrative, Stefani added, “I think the band was like, ‘What the hell?’ I had Apollo, and it was a true miracle.”
Amid a bustling household, Stefani received a life-changing call: an invitation to step in for the pregnant Christina Aguilera on NBC’s The Voice. “That was the second miracle. The first miracle was getting pregnant. The second was The Voice. And then the third was meeting Blake.”